“Obviously we were looking for a beautiful young woman,” acknowledges Bruckheimer, “but beauty alone was not enough. Like many of the characters in this film, Elizabeth is complex, and what you see on the surface isn’t everything. It was imperative that the actress understood the many facets of her character, not just the love story between Elizabeth and Will.”
“As a London girl, it was kind of nice for my first Hollywood experience to be the full Jerry Bruckheimer Hollywood experience,” gushes Knightley. “It was incredible. I really enjoyed it.”
“Keira liked to joke that ‘Pirates’ was ‘a movie about Elizabeth and her boys,’” Bruckheimer laughs. “And to an extent, she’s right. Elizabeth has a connection to each of the main male characters, and even finds herself in some pretty precarious situations with a few of Barbossa’s henchmen. She’s used to getting her way, but she quickly realizes that her usual direct, outspoken approach doesn’t work, so she’s not averse to using her feminine wiles when she has to; Elizabeth can be quite the little actress when necessary. It was wonderful to watch her work; it seems so effortless. Keira is truly gifted.”
“Keira steps into the ring and attacks,” says Depp of the actress’s approach on set. “She’s just as sweet as she can be and has a great sense of humor. Her work is right on the money, totally professional; she’s amazing. I was very impressed.”
“Elizabeth has a morbid curiosity about pirates,” says Verbinski. “She reads too many books on the subject and she’s become a sort of pirate groupie. But instead of getting to meet the Jon Bon Jovi of pirates, she ends up with the Sid Vicious, and even though she thinks she knows a lot about pirates, she soon learns that all the rules she believes in are meant to be broken.”
Knightley agrees with her director. “She romanticizes the entire pirate thing; it’s an obsession really. So it’s an interesting transition for Elizabeth to go from her romantic notions to the cutthroat, dirty reality of piracy. But she has a little pirate in herself,” Knightley says with a twinkle in her eye. “Don’t we all?”
Knightley was disappointed, however, that she never got to undergo sword training like her fencing co-stars. “The one thing I asked for was a sword,” she complains with a smile. “I fight with candlesticks, poles, even with a bedpan… but no sword. Nobody gives me a sword!” She adds playfully: “I managed to coax promises from Jerry and Gore that if we do another film together, they will give me a sword.”
Movie Database
In Theaters
